A mecca for hot-rod enthusiasts

British Columbian drag racing legend Jack Williams keeps history alive with his own museum

By Alyn Edwards, Postmedia News

Originally published: October 18, 2011

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Motorists passing through Aldergrove on the Fraser Highway in B.C. are doing a double take as they see the showroom in a former warehouse that is filled with nostalgic drag racers, hot rods and memorabilia. The sign by the highway reads: Syndicate Scuderia Hot Rod & Race Car Museum.

The owner is Jack Williams, who built one of Vancouver’s first hot rods back in 1946, customized and hot rodded hundreds of cars and built a series of dragsters under the name Syndicate Scuderia. These cars and many more are in the showroom.

For the museum’s grand opening on a recent Friday night, the parking lot was jammed with period custom cars and hot rods in rows as their owners milled around looking at the museum attractions. Many of those attending remember the iconic hot cars on display and the man who engineered so much horsepower into them and others for more than 60 years.

In the front window is a 1923 Model T roadster that was cut down and built into a hot rod in 1947. This may be British Columbia’s oldest surviving hot rod. The lightweight roadster powered by a Mercury V-8 engine was built by a young enthusiast named Bob Scott who never put it on the road.

In 1952, Stu Braddick bought the car and began prowling Kingsway and other haunts with the hot rod he called Toy T. Williams acquired the car from Sylvia Braddick to display in his museum.

A 1970 Hemi Cuda that has only travelled 500 kilometres since new sits alongside one wall. The orange Cuda was sponsored by Pacific Chrysler when it was new and campaigned on drag strips all over the Pacific Northwest. Gassy Jack’s Pub in Vancouver’s Gastown was a sponsor. The car was driven by Terry McKay with Cal Wrench in the pits and Williams adding the horsepower. Williams gained full ownership of the car about 30 years ago and plans to restore it. This is one of only 284 Plymouth Barracuda muscle cars delivered in the 1970 model year with the monster 426-cubic-inch hemi engine coupled to a four-speed transmission. A similar car owned by screen actor Nicolas Cage sold at auction a couple of years ago for $440,000. These cars can command prices of up to $1 million. Williams has a Hemi motor for the car sitting in a row of high horsepower engines ranging from Ford flatheads from the 1930s right up until the big muscle of the ’70s.

The famous Hemi-powered Syndicate Scuderia dragster built by Williams to compete in the 1963 Winternationals at California’s Pomona race track is also part of the collection. The internationally recognized drag racers had never heard of Jack Williams and probably didn’t know anything about Vancouver when his dragster unofficially broke the track record and won the Best Appearing Dragster award.

To test the car before going to California, Williams received permission from the City of Vancouver to run the car on Great Northern Way before it was opened to traffic. He would go on to become the first British Columbian to set an international drag racing record speed of 168.22 miles per hour (271 km/h) in a standing quarter mile.

His collection also includes two restored dirt track racers from the 1930s and 1940s. A period-correct flame-painted Ford Model T roadster looks like it just dropped into the showroom from the 1950s.

A modern 300 km/h-plus dragster built by Williams with partners in Bellingham is on display. The car is driven by Jack’s daughter, Wendy Anne.

Among the rolling artifacts is a 1936 Ford four-door convertible that Williams purchased in Sechelt and drove back to Vancouver more than 50 years ago. It still has the 1960 B.C. licence plates attached.

Horsepower Heaven used to be Williams’ shop on Burnaby’s Lane Street that his father helped him build 50 years ago. For decades, it was the hangout for those with a need for speed. Over the years, the shop became so cluttered that it was difficult to tell parts from cars.

A flotilla of pickup trucks driven by some of Williams’ many friends helped move tons of parts and cars to the new museum location on Fraser Highway just west of downtown Aldergrove.

“This museum is an opportunity for people to see the cars that have been part of local history and have largely been hidden from view,” the octogenarian says.

The legend of Jack Williams really started in 1951 when he bought a two-year-old Ford sedan from a Kingsway car lot and chopped the roof in the lane behind his east Vancouver house. He lowered the car to the ground, customized it with many new features and swapped a Cadillac V-12 engine for the original 110 horsepower flathead Ford V-8.

Among cars he did for others is a 1951 Chevrolet coach that was so radically customized that it was recognized by Rod and Custom magazine as being one of the era’s Top 10 best custom cars. The car, built for Cort Elliott, is still in Vancouver.

Williams’ first dragster used a handmade tubular chassis to house a pair of Ford flathead engines coupled to one another. One of the engines from that dragster is on display in the museum.

The back part of the warehouse is filled with nostalgic speed equipment which will be organized and displayed. Local hot rod and custom car enthusiast Ken Ransford has been helping with the displays. “There is only one Jack Williams and one person with a collection like this that should be seen by people who are interested in hot-rod history,” he says.

The Syndicate Scuderia Hot Rod & Race Car Museum has loose hours with admission by donation. “If I’m here, people are welcome to drop by,” Williams grins. It’s a great place for hot rod and custom car enthusiasts to go as a cruise destination. “I’ll always be here for that,” the proprietor says.

Alyn Edwards is a classic car enthusiast and partner in Peak Communicators, a Vancouver-based public relations company.